After hearing meows for help the owner spotted her drenched feline trapped inside

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A 10-month-old house cat was trapped inside of a washing machine for one hour and 45 minutes in a South African home.

Updated at 9:11 AM PDT on Friday, May 4, 2012

It's a good thing cats have nine lives.

A 10-month-old cat survived almost two hours in a washing machine, getting tossed and chucked around for a full spin cycle, South African newspaper The Star reported.

Tabitha's owner Karin Bennett, 63, searched everywhere after the crossbred cat vanished earlier this week at her home in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bennett, a widowed mother of two, told The Star that she had put a load of laundry in the washing machine and left her house to go run errands. When she came home, her black-coated kitty was nowhere to be found, despite audible meows.

Bennett checked on her laundry after hearing strange noises coming from the washer, which she said had a habit of acting up. She spotted her drenched feline trapped inside the machine.

“It could happen to anybody,” Bennett said. “She must have been sleeping in there.”

“I went berserk and screamed so loud that a neighbor came 'round,” she added, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.

Bennett and her neighbor forced open the door to find that Tabitha had survived the one hour and 45 minute trauma — though she was worse for the wear.

Tabitha was immediately rushed to a local vet and treated for shock, water on the lungs and hypothermia, according to The Star.